


Take Your Time

by FortLauderTales



Category: The Mindy Project
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Romance, Those Three Words, fluffy fluff fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-17
Updated: 2014-10-17
Packaged: 2018-02-21 11:40:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,291
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2466926
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FortLauderTales/pseuds/FortLauderTales
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>You know when you put something important off just a little too long, or take a joke a little too far?</p><p>A little fic, set post-Danny & Mindy but pre-WACNB.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Take Your Time

Mindy sat at the foot of the toilet, taking deep, even breaths with her eyes closed. She knew she only had herself to blame. She knew she was being petty and more than a little selfish, but she comforted herself with the thought that she genuinely had not meant to tease him this long.  When Danny had told her to “take her time”, she had thought to herself, _Oh, I’ll take my time,_ _alright._ Take her time she did, and now here she sat on the cold floor of the office ladies' room finally letting herself really think through her predicament.

It had been two months since Danny held her hand at that little cafe, the first place with food they had spotted after leaving the Empire State Building. He had held her hand gently but firmly, trepidation in his eyes as he confessed that he had left after waiting only an hour. Mindy hadn’t known what to think or do. She had wanted to storm off dramatically, to make him chase her through the city and wake the neighbors with a screaming match. She had wanted to make him beg for forgiveness again. But between his progressively more painful ribs and her swollen feet and aching knees no one was going to be running anywhere and the only place she wanted to go anyway was home. So Mindy had held back her tears and pulled back her hand. She left the restaurant, turned off her phone, and hailed herself a cab. After a night of fitful sleep, she had awoken at 7am to the sound of yelling outside her door.

Peeking through the peephole she had seen her neighbor, his normally pleasant baritone angrily pulsing through the door as he shouted the names of all the different cops whom he could summon with a call if this bum didn’t “get the fuck out of the building right now.” Mindy had thrown open the door to find Danny, still in the previous night’s clothing, sitting resolutely in front of her door. “Hey Min,” he had said sheepishly, “I waited all night this time. Swear to God.” Once her neighbor had been placated (“I’m so sorry, Dave, my boyfriend’s just an idiot. A stubborn one, at that”), they had sat quietly on her couch. Danny’s transgressions had been forgiven in the time it took Mindy to brew and serve the cups of coffee that sat all but ignored in their hands.

Finally, Danny had put down his cup and said, “Look, I don’t want you to think you have to say it back right now, just because I said it like nine times. These last 24 hours have been...well, they’ve been a little crazy.” He had looked deeply into her eyes while rubbing small circles with his thumb on her ankle. “I’m not going anywhere. Take your time.”

Mindy was grateful for his gesture and had meant to say “Don’t be stupid, I love you too”, but the the temptation to make him wait for it a little was all too enticing. So, instead, she softly said, "Yeah, okay. Thanks." She would tell him later that day. By the next morning for sure. No later than the following afternoon, tops. But, oh, it had been such delicious fun watching him make a show of not losing his composure when she went on exuberantly about how much she just LOVED the floral arrangement that Betsy had brought to the office one morning, or how much she LOVED the wildly colorful sweater that a fellow subway rider had been wearing, and especially how he had slammed his door shut after hearing her declare  “Oh my God, I LOVE you Morgan!” to the nurse as he brought her the last muffin from the kitchen (as she had demanded).

But days had turned into weeks and weeks had turned into months, and just saying it didn’t seem like enough anymore. With each passing day, the weight of the words grew in Mindy's chest until they felt too heavy to hold in and too big to let out without some damage to her heart.

When the stress barfs hit her that Friday two months later she knew it was time for the game to end, and it was on her second round of praying to the porcelain gods that she decided to go for broke. She needed to do something elaborate enough to serve as both an apology and as the perfect setting for unleashing “The Words”. She made Danny promise to meet her at her place at 7pm, sharp. After convincing a very reluctant Jeremy to cover her last appointments, she set out to put together the "I Love You" dinner to end all "I Love You" dinners.

She arrived at her apartment singing brightly and growing more and more confident that, yes, this was how this was meant to be. She set her bags on the table, queued up the night's playlist (heavy on Jersey rock, light on Beyoncé, absolutely no Ariana Grande) and went to work. She set a large pot under the faucet to fill while she went to look for the candlestick holders she had bought for the occasion.

She looked in all of her shopping bags and then under the table, her confusion turning into frustration. "Dammit! Why don't things just stay where I mean to find them?" As the minutes ticked by the search became more frantic. Moving into the living room she turned couch cushions over and laid magazine stacks asunder, Morgan's hard work tidying up (also by demand) now gone to waste.

Mindy began debating the importance of candles for ambiance and her sanity in general. She hadn’t even meant for this all to become such an EVENT. Sure, she had always dreamed of the first time she said “I love you” -- and meant it like this -- that it would be a Perfect Moment™; the right song playing, a sunset in the background, maybe a light drizzle as they--

Oh shit! Drizzle. Water! Oh no oh no oh no. Mindy ran back to the kitchen and slipped on the water that was cascading out of the sink and onto the floor. She managed to catch the edge of the counter, her feet still sliding. She turned off the faucet before finally losing her balance and landing hard on her ass, her torso following. Defeated, sore, and wet, she flopped the rest of her body on the floor, hardly caring that the water was slowly making its way past her clothing. Mindy wondered briefly whether the cold dampness she felt at the back of her skull was blood, and would have cried except there was no one there to appreciate her agony. So she sighed heavily and rolled herself up to survey the damage. The water hadn't gotten very far, but she'd have to spend the next couple of hours mopping it up, pulling up the carpet, and doing whatever the hell else one was supposed to do when their perfect dinner plans were ruined by accidental indoor flooding.

She did as much as she was willing to do (or as little as she could get away with without losing her security deposit) and called Danny.

"Change of plans, Babe", she said, trying to keep her voice light and cheerful.

She was grateful that Danny replied with nothing more than, "Okay, Sweetheart. Just meet me at my place and I'll take care of dinner." He even managed to keep the amused tone out of his voice, good man that he was.

And so Mindy picked her bruised ego and rear end up off the floor, changed into her most comforting outfit (yoga pants and one of Danny's sports themed t-shirts), grabbed a packet of sour patch kids to keep her company on the way, and headed to Danny's.

Deflated from her miserable failure, and too busy planning out _I Love You Dinner To End All I Love You Dinners: The Revenge_ , she had forgotten why she had insisted on dinner at her apartment in the first place. The answer, of course, hit her immediately when she entered the disgusting swamp -- "Oh, I'm sorry, 'Electricity Saving Sauna'" -- that was Danny's apartment. With a self-pitying groan she kicked her Fat Steps off, threw her purse at the couch, and refused to move farther than the entryway where she lay down, the better to feel sorry for herself, which is where Danny found her when he arrived home a few minutes later.

Suppressing an eye roll, Danny stepped over Mindy and set the bags of food on the kitchen counter. He brought over the floor fan, pointed it at her, and turned it on before opening a window and sitting down on the couch.

"Danny, I get that you have to economize, what with a whole slew of relatives to support and secret apartments and boats to own, but you seriously can't spare a couple of bucks to turn on the a/c so your girlfriend can visit comfortably? It's the dog days of summer! Do you even know what that means? _I_ don't, but I bet it has something to do with how this heat is dangerous even for dogs."

"It's October, and it's not even 80 degrees in here", Danny said, no longer able to suppress his amusement at the turn the night had taken. His lips curved upward into a small smile as he put his feet on the coffee table and patted the cushion next to him. "Okay, I officially acknowledge your hardship. Would you please just get up here already? I'll plate up the food and you can tell me all about how you forgot to turn on the oven or over-salted potatoes or something."

Mindy moved only enough to raise her right arm, gracefully extending her middle finger before letting her arm fall back to the floor. "Why am I even with you when you're so unsympathetic toward me? I flooded my apartment, okay, Danny? I flooded my apartment. I lost my brand new candlestick holders, probably broke my coccyx, and now I'm lying here at the very mouth of hell. Oh! And I just remembered that I left the groceries out and they’ll probably all rot so now I have starving African children on my conscience too."

Danny stood up, laughing and walked over to her. He leaned down, grabbed her leg, and dragged her over to the couch while Mindy alternately kicked at him and laughed loudly at her ridiculous boyfriend and this ridiculous position.

"Go sit by the window, you drama queen."

"Are you kidding me? I’ll end up stuck to your stupid leather couch and then you'll have to call the fire department and the news vans will show up and the headline of the story will be ‘Baby Daniel Survives Fall Through Manhole Only To Torture Beautiful Indian Doctor’. Do you not see how tragic this is? I'm not even wearing the right makeup to be on TV right now. Ugh, I'm just going to lie here all hot and sweaty, thank you very much."

"So ...you're saying, essentially, that I make you ‘all hot & sweaty?’" He smiled smugly over his shoulder as he walked toward the kitchen.

"Yes, but...no, you demented pervo. Just,” she paused to sigh dramatically, “I don't even have the energy to formulate a witty comeback. I may have sweated so much that I'm dehydrated. I don't know how YOU of all people are still alive. You should be a gooey puddle right now--"

"HEY!"

"--but I can't even contemplate that right now. Danny, Danny, I think I see a light. Please tell Rishi that I love him. You know what? No. He already knows. Tell Sandra Bullock that I love her and to never star in a sequel again. She’s just not doing herself any favors in that department-- you know what? It doesn't even matter. All I have the strength to do as I wait for death’s embrace is to think about how much I love you and --"

"-- Wait? What? You...what?" Danny bounded into the living room and, grinning madly, knelt between Mindy and the window. He took her hand and kissed it, then pressed it to his chest. She felt his heart beating through his shirt and looked into his suddenly damp eyes (which she did not dare bring up just yet and to which he would never admit anyway). “Min, say it again. Please? Say it again.”

“I love you Danny. I love you. I do. But I promise that if you don’t stop blocking the goddamned window right now I will call Nancy Grace and tell her that you’re trying to murder me.”

Danny laughed as he lay on the floor next to Mindy and rolled her on top of him. She couldn’t help laughing too. No, nothing had gone according to plan, but somehow this felt...right. Danny had been right all those months ago: "The most romantic place in the world...you don’t know it’s gonna be romantic ahead of time." Maybe that also applied to romantic moments. Plus now they had a great story to tell their grandkids--

“Well, yeah I was right. I usually am. And I’m pretty sure we’re supposed to start on the kids before we can actually have grandkids that we can bore to tears with our stories.”

“Okay, smartass. Those were clearly inside-the-head comments that went rogue” Mindy replied. “And for your information, I--” The rest of her retort was lost as Danny pulled her face down to kiss her, the heat and the food temporarily forgotten in the midst of an “I love you”-off that they both happily won.

**Author's Note:**

> A great big thanks to my very patient Beta, who is also my husband, for all of his help making this make some sort of sense with the barest minimum of grumbling and mega-est maximum of chocolate-buying.
> 
> As always, I welcome your feedback/comments/thoughts on whether Betsy would have added or taken away from this season.
> 
> Come by, say hi! FortLauderTales2720 on Tumblr or MexiCarli on Twitter.


End file.
